Convertible burner



July 7, 1925.

C. E. GREGORY CONVERTIBLE BURNER Patented July 7, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES E. GREGORY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO AUTOMATIC GAS OIL BURNER 00., OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

CONVERTIBLE BURNER.

Application filed June 5,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES E. GREGORY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Convertible Burners, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a burner which may be used with either one of several fuels, for example gas or oil, and which may be automatically converted from one to the other, for example from a gas burner to an oil burner and back to a gas burner.

Oil burners are coming to be widely used for various purposes, such as in power generating and heat generating plants. Up to the present time, however, they have been open to many objections, most of the devices now in use requiring a blower to atomize the oil, and this blower is objectionable because of its noise and expense. An other objection is that in starting an oil burner the combustion is imperfect and the burner rapidly acquires an accumulation of soot and carbon deposited thereon when the burner is first lighted.

There has been devised an oil burner in which the oil is fed by gravity to the burner and there permitted to flow over a series of corrugations on the burner. This burner is designed to spread out the oil in a thin film and to take the place of any atomizing blower, or the like. While doing away with the burner it has nevertheless remained open to the objection noted above, namely, the accumulation of soot and carbon which is deposited every time the burner is lighted.

It. is therefore the object of my invention to provide a burner which will always remain clean of soot and carbon.

A further object is to provide a convertible burner which may be used for gas alone, if desired, or which may be automatically converted into an oil burner.

These objects I achieve by providing an oil burner of the corrugated type above referred to and intended for use with a gravity feed and inserting therein another heating medium. This medium may comprise a plurality of gas tips communicating with a gas chamber in the interior of the burner and so constructed as to direct the flame into the corrugations 1924. Serial No. 717,980.

In the drawings in which I have illustrated one embodiment of my invention.

Fig. 1 is a vertical section through my improved burner taken on the line 11 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of my improved burner, and

Fig. 3 is a section through a portion of the furnace having my improved burner embodied therein.

Referring now to the drawings, my improved burner is designated generally by the numeral 1 and is of the cone shape shown in Figs. 1 and 3. The cone is truncated and its top is provided with the cupshaped recess 2. The sides of the cone are corrugated, as shown at. 3. The cone is preferably hollow to provide the gas chamber 4. Communicating with said chamber 4 is the pipe 5 and communicating with the cup-shaped recess 2 is the oil pipe 6 extending through the gas chamber 4. The cone may be made in one casting and the pipes 5 and 6 may be conveniently threaded therein, but any other equivalent construction may be followed. Communicating withthe gas chamber 4 are a plurality of passages 7 leading to gas tips 8. The tips 8 are so con structed that their openings 9 will direct the gas coming therefrom downwardly into the corrugations 3.

The tips 8 may be varied in number and location, as may be found most expedient. In this embodiment I have shown them to be twelve in number and disposed in the manner shown in Fig. 2. By this arrange; mentthe upper corrugation 3 is provided with two tips, which is normally enough due to the small circumference of this corrugation. Each of the two intermediate corrugations 3 is provided with four tips and the bottom corrugation is provided with two, which is suflicient because of the comparatively small amount of oil that reaches this bottom corrugation. It is to be understood that this arrangement is merely exemplary and may be varied at will without depart-ing from the spirit of my invention.

Referring now to Fig. 3, I have shown my burner 1 in place in a furnace. Air is supplied, following the directions indicated by the arrows, through the passageways 10 in the tubular member 11. This member is known in the art and forms no part of my invention, but it will be suflicient to say that the air comes in contact with the burner and in the case of an oil burner alone, helps somewhat to vaporize the oil and to spread out the heat generated at the burner. Underneath my burner I may provide a Water receptacle 12 supplied with water through the pipe 13 and this water is turned to steam by the heat from the burner. This steam enters the passageways 10 through the pipes 14. This construction forms no part of the present invention but is more fully described and claimed in my co-pending application, Serial No. 727,611 filed July 23, 1924.

In operation the oil and gas pipes may be sup lied with any suitable system of thermos atic control for example, such a system may be so adjusted that for a comparatively high temperature, let us say, in a room of a dwelling house, the oil supply will be shut off and the gas supply turned on. For a lower temperature in a room the oil supply will be turned on and then the gas will be turned off after a suitable interval. Upon the temperature of the room rising again to a suitable point the gas will be turned on and then after a suitable interval the oil will be turned off again. Such systems are well known and form no part of my present invention. I

In starting the use of my improved burner the gas is first turned on and lighted at the tips. These tips, as described above, direct the flame into the corrugations into which the oil is later to flow and will rapidly heat up these corrugations and, in fact, the entire burner will be heated. The heat generated by the gasburner is suflicient to supply heat, let us say in a dwelling house on a comparatively mild day. However, when the oil is turned on either by a thermostatic control above referred to, or manually, it is preferably fed by gravity through the pipe 6 into the cup-shaped recess 2 and then cascades down over the corrugations 3 in a thin film. The corrugations are already hot from the effect of the gas heat and the oil is quickly vaporized without the formation of any soot or carbon. Complete combustion is the result with the subsequent cleanliness which is highly desirable. When the temperature reaches a point to operate the thermostatic control, or when the oil is turned off for any other reason, the gas is first turned on for a short period to insure an overlap whereby there is always a supply of either gas or oil.

From the above description it will be apparent that I have provided a burner which may be employed as a gas burner alone and which when employed as such will be ample to supply heat under many conditions, and whic may be readily converted either automatically, or otherwise, into an oil burner. Moreover, I have achieved a burner which will maintain itself clean and avoid formation of soot, carbon, and the resulting smoke. It is therefore particularly applicable to a heating plant for use in dwellings or other buildings, although its use is by no means limited thereto. The gas which may be employed with my burner may be the usual gas supplied by the ordinary gas plant, water gas or any other suitable gas.

While I have described my burner as employing gas, nevertheless it is to be understood that this is intended only as exemplary. When employing the convertible feature of my burner the important consideration is to have the surface of the burner heated before the oil begins to flow and it is therefore obvious that any other heating means may be employed in place of the gas tips illustrated in this embodiment. However, I find that the embodiment which I have shown and in which gas is employed is extremely satisfactory and results in an extremely clean burner and the resulting flame is a pure blue hydrogen flame.

I am aware that changes in the form, con- .struction and arrangement of parts may be made without departing from the spirit and without sacrificing, the advantages of the invention and I reserve the right to make all such changes as fairly fall .within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. A burner havin a surface provided 100 with corrugations an gas tips on said surface, said tips adapted to project gas into said corrugations, for the purpose set forth.

2. A gas burner comprising a corrugated surface, a gas chamber in said burner, gas 105 tips on said surface and communicating with said chamber, said tips being arranged to project gas into said corrugations, and means to supply gas to said chamber.

3. A convertible gas and oil burner com- 110 prising a truncated cone, means to supply oil to the top of said truncated cone, gas tips (on the surface of said cone, and means for supplying gas to said tips.

4. A convertible gas and oil burner oom- 115 prising a truncated cone, the top of said cone being cup-shaped, means to feed oil to said top and gas tips on the surface of said cone, for the purpose set forth.

5. A convertible gas and oil burner com- 1 prising a truncated cone, the top of said cone being cup-shaped, means to supply oil to said cup-shaped top, the surface of said cone being corrugated, gas tips arranged on said surface to direct gas into said corru- 125 gations, and a gas chamber within said cone and communicating with said tips.

6. A convertible gas and oil burner comprising a truncated cone, the top of said cone being cup-shaped, the surface of said 130 cone being corrugated, means to supply oil to said top, a gas chamber within said cone, means to supply gas to said chamber, and means to conduct said gas to the surface of said cone,

7. A convertible gas and oil burner comprising a truncated cone, the top of said cone being cup-shaped, the surface of said cone being corrugated, means to supply oil to said top, a gas chamber within said cone, means to supply gas to said chamber, and means to conduct said gas to the surface of said con and into said corrugations.

8. A burner com rising a surface on which oil is adapted to be burned, means for supplying oil to said surface, means on said surface for burning gas, said means directing the gas against said surface.

9. A burner comprising a surface on which oil is adapted to be burned, means for supplying oil to said surface, a plurality of gas tips projecting from said surface, means for supplying gas to said tips, said tips being arranged to project the gas issuing therefrom towards said surface.

10. A burner havin a chamber therein, and a surface on Whicfi oil is adapted to be burned, means for supplying gas to said chamber, means for supplying oil to said surface, said burner having a passage connecting said gas chamber with said surface.

CHARLES E. GREGORY. 

